Google on Tuesday touted its use of encryption on email messages, which turns the messages into garble that can only be read with a key. Google began encrypting email by default in 2010.
Tuesday, it highlighted for users that encryption only protects messages if both parties use it. And it called out other email providers – including Comcast and France’s Orange – for not using encryption.
On one day last month, for instance, fewer than 1% of Gmail messages sent to Comcast.net email addresses remained encrypted and none of the messages sent to France’s Orange service were scrambled, Google said.
Fewer than half of the messages sent to and from Microsoft's Hotmail servers were encrypted. In a December blog post, Microsoft said it is working with other email providers to make sure messages remain encrypted.
Microsoft, Comcast and Orange could not immediately be reached for comment.
In the year since former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden released previously confidential documents showing the extent of the NSA’s electronic monitoring, many companies have offered apps and gadgets promising to keep the NSA out of your inbox — likely an overstated marketing claim.
Yet there’s little evidence yet that consumers are flocking to the technology.
Still, Christopher Soghoian, a technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union, says Google’s step Tuesday could help drag other tech companies forward.
“Google’s naming. We can shame,” Soghoian said. “And we will.”
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